Last Sunday I went out for a ride on my HNF Adventure. Nice weather, sunny and dry. Around only 12-15km from home I spotted some mud in front of me. The road seemed to be wet but nothing to care about. So I expected to get a dirty bike but no problems.
What seemed to be a normal road came out to be some type of permafrost soil where the top 5 to 10cm melted into a mixture of mud and concrete. The mud sticked on the bike like nothing I’ve seen before. A very special dirt – like a trap for MTBs.
After maybe 50m through the mud I felt no resistance on the pedal anymore. The Gates Carbon Belt had jumped of the sprockets. I stopped and tried to remount the belt. But there was so much mud on the belt, the bike the sprockets I found no way to bring the belt back on. No water to clean the stuff. And I, myself, was covered with mud all over too now.
So I removed the rear sprocket and pushed the bike back home. 12km at least. With bike shoes – no roll motion for my feet. My calves felt like stones when I arrived.
I cleaned the bike and remounted the belt drive without any problems now.
On week later on my way back home from the office I heard a “peng” and the belt drive was gone. No hard push, just rolling through the city. Maybe the 90€ belt has been damaged during my mud drama – shouldn’t happen. Anyhow – if you are looking for a tough expedition bike: go with a chain. Easy to replace anywhere. For me the belt drive still is the best option – but I don’t do expeditions…
And here is the new belt mounted on my bike. No problem to change the belt – that’s the easy part.
New Pedals – Scada plattform pedals